Farmer’s Kitchen: Ebisu

My husband and I finally visited a restaurant we have been eyeing for a while – Nouka no Daidokoro in Ebisu. My husband and I refer to it as “Farmer’s Kitchen”, as that is the closest English translation.

The great thing about Farmer’s Kitchen is that you have a choice as to how much meat you want in your dinner – the menu is arranged by a Vegetable:Meat:Fish ratio and you can choose from 4:4:2 , 6:2:2, and 10:0:0 — I always get 10:0:0, but it is possible that some dishes have chicken or fish broth in them.

The salad bar is all-you-can-eat, and includes lots of fresh veggies and dipping sauces.  Here is our first selection – udo, raw Japanese eggplant, red daikon, and komatsuna leaves.  We got a garlic miso paste, sea salt, and spinach sea salt to dip into, but we didn’t need them!

Although this picture isn’t the best, we were next served a little cup of daikon soup.  This soup was really creamy and actually seemed to be a potage instead of a thin soup.

Now, I am not a big onion fan.  I will eat well-cooked onions if they are used as a seasoning, but I would never bite into a big old onion!  But this looked yummy – a Spring Onion with balsalmic glaze.  I was so surprised at how sweet and tender the onion was!

Next I got a spring vegetable appetizer.  This is a piece of asparagus wrapped in a spring roll wrapper and put on top of kuzumochi that had been flavored and colored with green spring vegetables.  The orange stuff is carrot sauce.  Doesn’t this dish bring to mind a new shoot of grass?!

My husband got one of the 4:4:2 choices, and his appetizer was this fish and veggie patty thing.  He said it was sort of à la meunière, but tomato-based.  The perfect transition from the salad bar to the main courses!

This is an agar and vegetable dish served with matcha sauce.  The vegetables included daikon, yellow bell pepper, carrot, and mixed lettuces.  The agar was flavored somehow… a little salty and some light vegetable taste — so yummy!

My main course was veggie steaks – and wow! they were delicious!!  Japanese eggplant, yellow bell pepper, nanohana, and shiitake mushrooms served with balsalmic vinegar and matcha salt.  I felt like I was eating the flesh of the earth!

Not to leave out our meat-eating friends… this is my husband’s main dish – a chicken and vegetable stew.  The vegetables were carrots, bell peppers, potatoes, onions, and komatsuna leaves.  My husband reports that the chicken was mainly used as an accent for the veggies, and was quite pleased with the dish.

And finally, we got a vegetable miso soup, rice, and lightly pickled daikon.  The soup was awesome!  Lot of vegetables simmered for a super long time – my guess is that they use the trimmings of vegetables and simmer all day.  Very complex taste!

Farmer’s Kitchen, Ebisu:

Address: Ebisu South One 1F; 1-7-8 Ebisu-Minami; Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0022

Google Maps: 東京都渋谷区恵比寿南1-7-8

Phone: 03-3719-4831

Hours: Lunch: 11:00-15:50 (L.O. 14:40)

             Dinner: 18:00-23:00 (L.O. 22:00; Drink 22:30; Last Entrance 21:45)

            Open Every Day except New Year’s Holidays and during renovations (see website)

Japanese Website: http://www.noukanodaidokoro.com/resto/ebisu/

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Tenya – Meguro

It’s crucial to be able to find cheap, fast food sometimes.  There are very few options for vegetarians, and almost none for vegans.  One decent place is Tenya, a Japanese fast food chain that serves tendon, short for tempura donburi.  Basically, it is vegetables and seafood fried in batter, dipped in a soy-based sauce, and served on top of steamed white rice.  The nice thing about Tenya is that they have a vegetable-only selection – the yasai tendon (野菜天丼).  It is important to note, however, that the batter has eggs, the dipping sauce has fish broth, and the vegetables and seafood are fried together.

I went to get some tendon the other day, and decided to try the spring vegetable tendon set, which is served with miso soup and a small bowl of udon.  The vegetables were Japanese eggplant, umeboshi, kakiage (carrots and onions that are minced and mixed together), sugar snap peas, sweet potato, and daikon.  I added a lotus root and green bean topping as extras to mine.

Well, my reaction was a bit mixed.  I have to say that umeboshi should not be fried!  Otherwise, everything else was pretty good.  I won’t say that Tenya is the most delicious restaurant in the world, but it is good quality for the speed and price.  Another thing that is great about Tenya is that they are located all over Japan, and if you are in a big city like Tokyo you can find them just about anywhere.

Tenya, Meguro Station:

Address: Kami Osaki 2-16-4 甲陽 Building 1F; Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0021

Google Maps: 東京都品川区上大崎2-16-4

Phone: 03-3280-1708

Hours: Weekdays: 11:00-23:00

             Weekends and Holidays: 11:00-22:00

Japanese Website: http://www.tenya.co.jp/index.htm

Autumn Heaven

Anyone who has ever lived in Japan for even a short time knows that Japan is a country of 4 seasons. Every season is completely different – not just in terms of the weather, but also in terms of what food is eaten. For me, Spring is mountain vegetables like zenmai; Summer is white peaches; Autumn is matsutake; and Winter is mikan.
Now, it is officially Autumn. The Autumn Equinox is today, and my husband and I were feeling especially seasonal when we spotted some matsutake for sale at a small grocery store. I first ate matsutake when visiting Kyoto, and fell in complete love with a dish known as dobinmushi, a type of soup made with matsutake and served with mitsuba, ginkgo nuts, and sudachi. Heaven, indeed!
Well, unfortunately matsutake are very expensive! We got 4 for 2500 JPY, about $25.00. These came with 1 sudachi. Not enough citrus for me! That’s okay, we visited another grocery store and got the other ingredients. So, here we go. Our recipe was:

Matsutake mushrooms. We only used one mushroom for the soup. We used another to make matsutake rice, and stored the last two wrapped in paper for the next day.

Konbu. This is essential for the broth, especially if you want to make a good vegan broth.

Our broth wasn’t vegan, as we added Katsuobushi. I know, not even vegetarian! But we only used it for the broth, and I am okay with dashi – it is sort of a requirement in Japan.

Mitsuba. Chopped finely – a key ingredient to make the flavor of the dobinmushi.

Ginkgo nuts – we bought them in a clear plastic bag (this many were about 700 JPY) and repackaged in a Ziploc as they go bad quickly. We used 6 nuts for the soup.

Sudachi. One per person is how we do it – we both love citrus!

Dashi Recipe:

800 ml water

12 g konbu

10 g katsuobushi (if you are going vegan, try shitake mushrooms instead, maybe…)

-Wipe konbu with a wet cloth, but don’t wash

-Put konbu into cold water and heat

-Just as the water comes to a boil, remove konbu (if you leave longer, it will taste bitter)

-Over weak heat, add katsuobushi

-Boil lightly until katsuobushi begins to float

-Filter katsuobushi from dashi

-Cool

Dobinmushi Recipe:

3 cups dashi

1 matsutake mushroom, cut into small slices – DO NOT WASH! Wipe with wet cloth.

2 tablespoons cooking sake

3/4 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 ginkgo nuts

2 tablespoons mitsuba, chopped

2 sudachi

SERVES 2

-Boil dashi, soy sauce, salt, and cooking sake, then add ginkgo nuts.

-Pour into pre-heated dobin pot

-Add matsutake, cover, and heat about 7 minutes

-Remove from heat, add mitsuba, and serve with cups and halved sudachiClick here for a great video of matsutake no dobinmushi preparation. (Not me!)

How the matsutake should look. Make sure you cut off the bottoms, too.

Our konbu strips, before cooking.

Katsuobushi, in the strainer, being weighed. That’s a lot!

Straining the dashi after cooking.

Cracking the ginkgo nuts – they are hard to crack!

After cracking/shelling, before cooking.

We boiled the ginkgo nuts for a while (about 2-3 min in water – until the brown/white membrane peels off and you are left with the green nuts) – we froze the ones we didn’t use.

We sadly don’t have dobin pots. Instead, we used our tea pot. I know, pathetic!! Also, we had no way to directly heat the pot, so we improvised by using a vegetable steamer in our biggest pot and steaming the tea pot and dobinmushi that way.

Our finished – and DELICIOUS dobinmushi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In a tea cup to sip, with a sudachi on the side. We got about 2 cups each, so I used a whole half of a sudachi in each serving. YUM!

Usually, you eat the stuff from the soup first. Our tea pot didn’t allow for that because the opening was too small. We put our delicious matsutake, mitsuba, and ginkgo nuts into the tea cups and ate this way. YUM!!!

Pasutakan

Okonomiyaki – the stuff dreams are made of! I LOVE this Japanese dish, but I didn’t know that I loved it until my French friend was planning her visit to Tokyo and mentioned how much she loved Okonomiyaki. My husband and I went that very night to Pasutakan in the MyLord’s Department Store in Shinjuku and I learned just how scrumptious this dish can be! I didn’t take pictures on that visit, but I did this time around. Of course, we had to take my French friend, and did so on August 27. We went to Pasutakan again, because they let you cook at your own table and you can “build your own” okonomiyaki.
PLEASE NOTE: Okonomiyaki/Monjayaki both contain katsuodashi – dried fish broth – so it is NOT strictly vegetarian. Pasutakan does offer many “mostly vegetarian” okonomiyaki, though (meaning, nothing except the dashi is non-vegetarian.)  But make sure you tell them “niku nashi, ebi nashi, ika nashi”

Before mixing, okonomiyaki looks like this. This one was for my husband and friend – it had shrimp, squid, and pork in it, so I didn’t eat it! Primary ingredients for okonomiyaki are flour mix, broth, egg, and cabbage. This one also had pickled ginger, a popular ingredient. Mine (not pictured at this stage) had corn, potato, cheese, mochi, and pickled ginger. Not all mixed in one! We had two, but I forget which had corn and which had potato…

After thorough mixing, you put the mixture onto the hot frying surface with some oil. The okonomiyaki should be about as big as the width of a normal adult hand fully spread. You then cook with a cover for 4 minutes on each side.

The finished okonomiyaki! We top with okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise. My husband and friend added nori seaweed and dried fish flakes to the top, but I like mine just like this!

Here is a type of dish served at Pasutakan that is more native to Tokyo – monjayaki! It may look similar to okonomiyaki at first glance, but they actually evolved separately. Monjayaki came about in Tsukishima in Tokyo. First, the ingredients are cooked on the hot plate and a “levee” is made from them to contain the liquid parts. Then, the liquid is added slowly. The first picture is after the “levee” has been made and about half the liquid is frying away. The monjayaki is then spread over the whole hot plate and the monjayaki should get really fried – crispy = delicious!!! The bottom picture is the near end product. YUM! But watch out – it is salty!

Pasutakan:

Address: Shinjuku MYLORD 8F; 1-1-3 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0023

Google Maps: 東京都新宿区西新宿1-1-3

Phone: 03-3349-5611 (MYLORD main switchboard)

Hours: Sun-Sat 11:00 AM-11:00 PM

Japanese Website: http://www.towafood-net.co.jp/pasutakan/

Multilingual MYLORD Floor Guide: http://www.shinjuku-mylord.com/pdf/floor_guide_en_cn_kr.pdf

Nuun Again

My French friend visited from August 25, and we took her to our favorite Tokyo restaurant on her first night. Since I have posted about Nuun so many times, I will only post pictures of the dishes that I haven’t yet shown.

One of our appetizers – steamed seasonal vegetables steamed served with rock salt and green pepper miso for dipping. I showed this in my Nuun Dinner post, but as you can see, it does change with the season! Here we had portions for 3 – asparagus, okra, broccoli, a type of gourd/squash (not sure which one, but yummy!!), baby corn, and delicious baby carrots. So fresh tasting!

This is the dinner-sized portion of a lunch I had at Nuun once. It is the tofu cutlet, served with two dipping sauces. Read the link above for more info on this too-yummy-for-description dish!

 Last “new” dish we had: new potatoes with 3 toppings: red miso (see closeup), butter and salt, and soy sauce. All three were delicious as expected, but the red miso was so good that I could have eaten all three! I highly recommend this dish to everyone.

Nuun:

UPDATE: NUUN HAS CLOSED!!

Azabu Shigezo

A good friend of mine visited from France from the end of August through the first few days of September. This restaurant, Azabu Shigezo, was visited on September 1, after we returned from Kyoto. We were really interested in this restaurant because tofu is their speciality. It was a truly great experience!!!! The food was exquisite. I highly recommend that everyone try this restaurant – even people who think they don’t like tofu! You haven’t really tried it until you’ve eaten here!

Most Japanese izakaya-style restaurants serve little starter dishes if you order drinks, and this was no exception. These dishes were remarkably fresh and good. Nasu with shoyu, topped with negi; renkon and gobō lightly mixed with sesame oil. Delish!
We started with their fresh yuba, served with a dollop of real wasabi. They make the yuba at the restaurant, and there are a limited quantity of orders each day. I am soooo glad that we were able to get one! This may not look so yummy, but the taste was… phenomenal! Very rich texture, and the taste is incredibly subtle. I ate a small piece just by itself, and was moved by it’s fresh taste.

They had three types of salt available, as well as a very nice soy sauce. We dipped the yuba in these – just a touch of salt is needed! The three salts are (from the left): salt with seaweed extract so it has a lot of minerals; coarsely ground sea salt; and finely ground sea salt. Each had a distinct flavor and they were all great.

Next we had the seasonal homemade tofu dish. Again, orders are limited. This was… indescribably scrumptious! So tender, and the green color and sauce is made from fresh seasonal beans. It was shockingly sweet – good shock! The taste of summer was clear in this dish.

Then we had fried yuba rolls with cheese and nori. I’m not 100% sure what type of cheese this is, but it was a really good combination. The cheese was very creamy and gooey – just like hot cheese should be! The fried yuba was very nicely crisp. The nori added some salty flavor to the mix, so it was really good.

Next was agedashidofu. I must admit that I am not the biggest fan of agedashidofu usually, but this was very good. Lots of flavor, and the breading was just right – not too thick or too thin!

We then ordered a salad. This is shredded daikon on a bed of red leaf lettuce with some kaiware daikon sprouts on top. The dressing was goma – very rich and lots of vitamins! This salad gets a top rating from me – the daikon was very crisp and fresh and the dressing was perfect for the cold, sharp flavor of the daikon.

 Final dish: reimen – cold noodles with cucumbers, negi, kimchi, and half a boiled egg as topping. The sauce was slightly spicy, but cold and oh-so-yummy!

Now – the TRULY get part of this restaurant!! They speak good English (or the waiter who waited on us did) AND they were willing to put any meat on the side! My husband and friend of course gobbled up the meat. None of the dishes we got had meat in them – the ones with meat were “topped” with some meat – ham or chicken, mostly. They willingly just put these into extra dishes and I got to enjoy the food without the thought that it had touched meat! Everything is made as you order, so they are able to do that. What a wonderful restaurant!! We will definitely be returning – sooner than later!!

Azabu Shigezo:

Address: Crest Azabu 2F, 2-13-9 Azabu-Juban, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0045

Google Maps: 東京都港区麻布十番2-13-9

Phone: 03-5765-9180

Hours: Mon-Wed 5:00 PM-12:00 AM; Thurs-Sat 5:00 PM-1:00 AM; Sun and holidays 5:00 PM- 11:00 PM

Japanese website: http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g749300/

Note: RESERVATIONS SUGGESTED!

Curry King

We unfortunately haven’t been out to eat recently. It is quite expensive to eat vegetarian in Tokyo (as in most cities), but today I would like to talk about a very cheap veggie meal.

I LOVE Japanese curry rice. My husband makes the best curry rice at home, but I also really like to eat at restaurants. Some restaurants unfortunately put meat into their yasai-karê.

We have a Karê no Ousama – “Curry King“, an S&B company, very close to our house, and the curry there is delicious, inexpensive, and comes with options. Plus, there is no visible meat! (Please note – most likely there is some sort of meat (chicken, beef, or pork) used in the curry sauce, but I don’t ask!)

Today’s meal was: juuhakkoku-mai yasai karê. That is, 18-grain rice vegetable curry. I got a side salad and cold oolong tea, too. All this cost 830 yen, which is about $8. Yasui! Plus, you can add as many fukujinzuke as you want!! I LOVE to add a ton. The veggies in the curry were potatoes, carrots, eggplant, and broccoli. Oishikatta!!!

18-grain rice contains: brown rice, black rice, red rice, black soy beans, azuki beans, soy beans, barley, Job’s Tears, black sesame seeds, white sesame seeds, glutinous millet, sorghum, glutinous foxtail millet, Japanese barnyard millet, corn, white sorghum, quinoa, and amaranth. Lots of good carbs!

Curry King (Ichigaya):

Address: Ichigaya Plaza 1F, 4-2 Kudankita; Chiyoda-ku; Tokyo

Google Maps: 千代田区九段北4-2

Phone: 03-3262-7465
Hours: Mon-Fri: 11:00-23:00; Sat, Sun, Holidays: 11:00-22:00
Japanese website: http://www.curry-ousama.co.jp/

Now, compare this yasai-karê to my husband’s homemade one (with potatoes, carrots, and okra… yum!!!).

Nuun Dinner

On Tuesday (7/21) night, my husband and I headed over to Nuun again. I was near his work, we were both hungry, and we were still salivating over the last visit!
For those who don’t know: Nuun is a truly fabulous restaurant in Akabanebashi that caters to yuru-beji (loosely vegetarians), and has offerings for vegans and strict vegetarians, too. This food is so delicious and is served in an aesthetically-pleasing manner, in a super-hip environment.
We were both super hungry, and we got a LOT of food (the better to show you, of course!).
Let me give you a look at our heavenly repast…

 

Two views of the yuba-skin spring rolls with sweet chili sauce. The vegetables inside included green beans, carrots, and lettuce. The combination was incredibly scrumptious – crunchy, with that little sweet zing of the sweet chili sauce to add panache.

Now, two views of the steamed seasonal vegetables with rock salt and green chili pepper miso paste for dipping. The vegetables were steamed perfectly – not too soft or too hard. The list: cherry tomatoes, baby potatoes, baby carrots, asparagus, kabocha, sugar snap peas, and baby corn. The sauces are shown in the first picture on the side plate. It was a perfect serving for two, and the vegetables matched very well with the salt and pepper miso paste.

On to the main courses:

This is the yam and okra okonomiyaki. The yam is Japanese yamaimo, or mountain yam, and is very slimy in texture. Doesn’t sound good, but pairs very well with okra, another slimy food. Also, yamaimo has a very fresh, crisp taste that really goes well in okonomiyaki.

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of eating okonomiyaki: it is a pancake made of shredded cabbage, flour, broth, egg, and various added ingredients. It is then topped with okonomiyaki sauce (similar to Worcestershire sauce), katsuobushi, Kewpie mayonnaise, and aonori. This one had okonomiyaki sauce and katsuobushi, mizuna, yamaimo, and okra. I forgot to tell them to hold the katsuobushi, but I know that they will keep it off if you ask. I just picked it off and gave it to my husband.

Ah… something that I could eat 100 of in one meal! This is makomotake deep fried with almonds. You dip it into rock salt, and it is topped with shisoflowers and chives. The texture of makomotake is… indescribable. You really have to eat it – crisp, almost crunchy, with a nutty flavor. Makomotake is not available in the US, as it is caused by a fungal infection of the Manchurian Wild Rice plant. Too bad, as this vegetable is truly, utterly, fabulously delicious!

Next, we had gluten meat with steamed asparagus and a ginger sauce. I have had gluten meat-alternatives before, but this is honestly the most tender, delicious, flavorful one that I have eaten. I wish I could have eaten nothing but this! The asparagus was, as always at Nuun, steamed perfectly. To garnish: mixed greens and shiraganegi,“gray-hair spring onion”.

 Finally, we had the carbs of our meal with spinach noodles, dipped in a soup of tomatoes and garlic. So refreshing and absolutely perfect as the end of our meal. The noodles were served cold, topped with mizuna and shiso flowers. The soup was also cold, and had chunks of tomato and garlic. I think that there might have been chicken broth in the soup (there is a meat symbol next to this dish on the menu, but no obvious meat), and the noodles are egg noodles. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed this dish. Again, I wished I could have eaten more of this dish, but I was already so full!

 And we finished our meal with the panna cotta again. I simply cannot describe how rich and flavorful this panna cotta is, how delicious, cool, and refreshing, how great the texture is. The fruits that came with it were apple and mango slices, and accented the panna cotta very well.

Overall impression: we’ll be back again soon!

Nuun:

UPDATE: NUUN HAS CLOSED!!

Chirimentei Ramen

On 7/20, my husband and I went to Chirimentei Ramen Restaurant in Ichigaya. Chirimentei is a chain ramen shop that allows you to get food “niku nashi” and has the added benefit of veggie gyoza.

My husband’s dish: NOT vegetarian! He had tsukemen, or dipping ramen, with a side of fried rice.

My dish isn’t originally vegetarian, but I asked for it “niku nashi” (no meat), and this is how it came. This dish is hiyajiru tsukemen, a summer-only dish that is very similar to hiyashi-chuka. The sauce is probably miso and sesame. The toppings were pickled bamboo shoots, cucumber slices, nori, half a boiled egg, and myoga.

And finally… the very delicious vegetable gyoza. These are filled with cabbage and chives, mostly.

Chirimentei (Ichigaya):
Address: Ichigaya Plaza 4-2-15 Kudan-kita, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo Japan

Google Maps: 千代田区九段北4-2-15
Phone: 03-3263-2416
Hours: Mon-Sat 11:00 AM -2:00 AM and Sun 11:00 AM – 11:00 PM
Japanese website: http://www.tomos.co.jp/

Nuun

Today I was able to meet my dear husband for lunch! That’s rare for a weekday, to say the least. Where did we head? To our favorite Tokyo restaurant – Nuun in Akabanebashi! Nuun is very close to Tokyo Tower, and has absolutely fabulously delicious seasonal food that can only be described as exquisitely creative.

Today, we both got the Tofu Cutlet lunch plate, because it looked so good!

 

Here it is, in all it’s glory… a fried tofu cutlet with two dipping sauces (one daikon, onion, and garlic; the other was very similar to tonkatsu sauce), lightly battered and fried okra, fresh mizuna salad, cold marinated mushrooms, and cold marinated summer squash. Divine.

This came with our lunch set as well: brown rice and a very nice vegetable soup. The broth was a clear broth that tasted strongly of a mixture of vegetables, and there were chunks of squashes, cabbage, and carrots… other stuff, too, but I can’t be sure of what! The rice was cooked to perfection and the simple taste of the soup really complemented the rest of the meal.

And here is our dessert… a rich, melt-in-your-mouth panna cotta with chocolate sauce and iced coffee. Aaah… so delicious!!

 

Nuun:

UPDATE: NUUN HAS CLOSED!!